Conservation

From a child I have had an interest in nature and conservation work, encouraged by my membership of a number of organisations including the RSPCA. This interest has been renewed through various activities over time and influenced the direction of my academic courses and my past interest in camping and hiking.

I have worked as a volunteer along a village nature walk, maintaining the paths and performing active clearing of areas to encourage new growth to maximise diversity, all while ensuring existing habitats are left as undisturbed as possible. I have also worked as a member of a city environmental volunteer group, helping to maintain and improve local parks, meadows and waterways.

During academia I took modules which focused on Zoology and conservation which included field trips to Mallorca, Brazil and Devon to study different techniques around the world and how plants and animals have adapted to these different conditions. Each trip also included an element of field research studying either animal behaviour or species diversity using identification keys and metre quadrants.

My academic modules also included a botany element which I continued for an additional couple of months as part of a plant ID course.

My undergraduate dissertation involved a prolonged study into Bumblebee health within my local area, using genetic techniques to identify the population health. This required the capture, sampling, identification and release of bees over the summer followed by DNA extraction and categorising by colony using microsatellite data.

The same laboratory was performing research into ants and eusocial insects, with research often discussed in the wider context during weekly project reviews and journal clubs.